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THE ROYAL WEDDING - THE RSM GUIDE TO THE WEDDING OF WILLIAM AND KATE (Special Nook Edition) Guidebook for the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William of Wales with over 300 pages of bonus material, including biographical notes of Kate Middleton

Overview

THE ROYAL WEDDING - THE RSM GUIDE TO THE WEDDING OF WILLIAM AND KATE (Special Nook Edition) Guidebook for the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William of Wales with over 300 pages of bonus material, including biographical notes of Kate Middleton by RSM Guide to The Royal Wedding

THE ROYAL WEDDING - THE RSM GUIDE TO THE WEDDING OF WILLIAM AND KATE (Special Nook Edition) Guidebook for the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William of Wales with over 300 pages of bonus material, including biographical notes of Kate Middleton

EXCERPT

Ceremony

10.30am. Prince William and Kate Middleton will travel to the service. Kate Middleton will arrive at the abbey by car rather than by carriage, which is the traditional transport for royal brides – the planned route is along The Mall, through the Horse Guards Parade and down Whitehall to the abbey.

11am. Wedding service at Westminster Abbey, whose capacity is 2,200. The Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev Dr John Hall, will officiate for most of the service. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will marry the couple. The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, will give the sermon. It has long been traditional for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Church of England's most senior bishop, to officiate at the weddings of England's monarchs and future monarchs, but as Chartres is a close friend of the Prince of Wales, he was invited to take part in the ceremony.

In a break with royal tradition, the groom is to have a best man—his brother, Prince Harry—rather than a supporter, while the bride has chosen her sister, Pippa, as maid of honour. The couple will have four bridesmaids—Lady Louise Windsor, the seven-year old daughter of the Earl and Countess of Wessex; Margarita Armstrong-Jones, the eight-year old daughter of Viscount and Viscountess Linley; Grace van Cutsem, the three-year old daughter of the couple's friend Hugh van Cutsem; and Eliza Lopes, the three-year old granddaughter of the Duchess of Cornwall. Two page boys are also to participate: William Lowther-Pinkerton, the ten-year old son of William's private secretary, and Tom Pettifer, the eight-year old son of William and Harry's former nanny, 'Tiggy' Pettifer.

12pm. The married couple will travel in a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace, crossing Parliament Square before going along Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade and The Mall.

12.30pm. The Queen will give a reception at Buckingham Palace for the newlyweds and a selection of several hundred guests from the congregation.6pm. The Prince of Wales is to host a private dinner that evening dinner at the palace for the couple, their close friends and family followed by dancing.

Guest list

On 16 and 17 February, three sets of guest lists were sent out in the name of the Queen. As William is not the heir apparent, protocol has dictated that many guests (or their successors in office) who were invited to the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 need not be invited to William's wedding. More than half of the guests will be family and friends of the couple, though there will be a significant number of Commonwealth leaders (including the governors-general who represent the Queen in Commonwealth realms other than the UK, prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms, and heads of government of other Commonwealth countries), members of religious organisations, the diplomatic corps, several military officials, members of the British Royal Household, members of foreign royal families, and representatives of William's charities and others with whom William has worked on official business. Although St James's Palace declined to publish the names of those invited, a breakdown of guests was published by category−the list made no mention of foreign heads of state, though it was announced that about 40 members of foreign royal families had been invited.

The first list, consisting of about 1,900 people, is of attendees to the ceremony in the abbey. The second list of approximately 600 people is of those invited to the luncheon reception at Buckingham Palace, hosted by the Queen. The final list, containing about 300 names, is for the evening dinner hosted by the Prince of Wales.

Timing

The original engagement announcement stated simply that the wedding will be “in the spring or summer of 2011”. On 23 November 2010 the date of Friday 29 April 2011 was confirmed. It was later announced that the day will be declared a public holiday throughout the United Kingdom, formal confirmation being made by the Queen in Council on 15 December 2010.

As 29 April falls six days before elections for the Scottish Parliament, this has attracted political comment in Scotland. John Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, stated that the date was “unfortunate” and was “likely to see the Royal Family getting caught up in political debate”.